Sections

Leafs vs. Canadiens feels like it matters again

Goal Ben Scrivens of the Toronto Maple Leafs dives for the puck during a game against the Montreal Canadians during NHL action at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, February 27, 2013.Photo: Tyler Anderson/National Post

TORONTO — In one locker room Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Ben Scrivens was being asked if he felt an extra buzz in the air, and he asked with a smile, “What does a buzz feel like? It’s not the same type of buzz that I associate a buzz with.” Laughs all around.

An hour later, down the hall, Montreal Canadiens rookie Brendan Gallagher was being asked what he received for giving up No. 73 to returning veteran Michael Ryder, and he was grinning, too. “I heard Rolex makes nice watches,” he said. In both rooms the mood was light, easy, full of businesslike anticipation. The Leafs and Canadiens were both winners, in this moment, and it was the morning of a game, a game that mattered.

This was the strange new world these two twinned franchises found themselves in, in this moment. Montreal entered the game in first place in the Eastern Conference, though just one point ahead of the Bruins, who now have four games in hand; Toronto was seventh, three points out of first and five points out of ninth. This game meant something more than the usual ritualistic rivalry between two teams that have not met in the playoffs since 1979. (Canadiens 4, Leafs 0, quarter-finals.)

This time the Habs dominated play, and the Leafs watched bullets go skimming harmlessly past their goal until midway through the third period, when a strange faceoff sent Montreal from a tie game towards a 5-2 victory. In the end, it was a game earned by everyone involved. By the end of the night, only one room was cheerful, even if Leafs coach Randy Carlyle acted bemused by his team’s performance.

It didn’t feel like a playoff game even when it was undecided, because the building was its typical self, rising to the occasional occasion but generally providing a low and placid water table, like everyone was watching a film rather than a game. The platinums were still half-empty when the second and third periods began. That wasn’t unusual.

The stakes were, this late in the year. It should be remembered that the Leafs were one point out of the conference lead after 20 games last season before parachuting out of the picture, but then, after 19 games last year the Canadiens were in the midst of a once-in-a-generation immolation. Montreal fired assistant coach Perry Pearn on a game day, traded winger Mike Cammalleri in the second period, fired head coach Jacques Martin on a game day — it became a bit of a habit, or something — and installed an Anglophone coach, as if the franchise had never read a local newspaper in its life.

It was the opera in flames, full of cultural importance and linguistic fury, and the team finished last in the East, one year after taking the eventual Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins to overtime of a deciding game. It was a show.

Mike Fraser (left) of the Toronto Maple Leafs checks Colby Armstrong (right) of the Montreal Canadians during NHL action at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, February 27, 2013.

Players knew a new coaching staff was coming in, under a new general manager, and say they spent the summer and the lockout preparing to impress the new bosses. When defenceman P.K. Subban was sitting out waiting for a new contract at the beginning of this season, he saw a difference under second-term coach Michel Therrien. He saw a different forecheck, a different urgency, a team that attacked the puck, that drew energy and skill from rookies Alex Galchenyuk and Gallagher and ex-Ranger Brandon Prust. He saw a team, as he put it, that expected to win.

“That’s the mentality of our team now,” says Subban. “You can feel it in the room. It’s a group of guys that come together and believe in each other, that see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now, don’t get me wrong: You need to have bounces happen, you need to have things go your way, health, for that confidence to build, and we’ve had that early in the season. And that’s great. But to keep that going it takes 22, 23 guys to buy in and want to do that. And you can see that in this dressing room. We know we have enough to win.”

The Leafs weren’t expected to be anything much, and fired general manager Brian Burke the day the new collective bargaining agreement was ratified. But the goaltending had been brilliant, and it’s gotten them this far.

On this night, though, the Canadiens possessed the puck like they had bought it at the official Leafs shop, and Colton Orr inexplicably played a career-high 14:55 — his previous career high of 13:16 was set in January of 2008 — and Montreal got a few bounces and a couple calls and a 5-2 victory. The Leafs are now three points clear of eighth, with a game in hand. Montreal stayed in first. Big game.

Every game is so much more important than the next one, and the next one is more important, and it continues to build and build and build

But everyone involved knows how fleeting this very Canadian moment could be, how quickly the happy feelings could vanish. Because both sides have seen it happen before, not long ago.

“It’s good [now],” says Subban. “It’s a great atmosphere, but in the back of your mind you know how quickly things can turn around. I mean, look at the year before last year, you know? We took the Stanley Cup champions to Game 7, and arguably we could have beaten them. Things change from year to year, and you have to build it every year. Momentum never carries from one season to the next.”

“The difference between first and ninth, making the playoffs, in a shortened season might be six points,” says Gorges. “What’s that? One game a month? One overtime loss every couple weeks? I mean, that’s the difference. Every team is that close. It’s about which team can be most consistent.”

“There’s a lot more injuries throughout the league because of the compressed schedule, and there’s a lot more pressure on everybody to play the game to a higher level for a longer, extended period of time because of the relevance of the game,” said Carlyle. “And every game is so much more important than the next one, and the next one is more important, and it continues to build and build and build.”

Wednesday night it built to a minor peak in Toronto, to a game that should have felt like more than it did. Still, it mattered, for both sides, on the scoresheet as well as the dusty old ledger they keep in a box. For all the history involved, it felt a little like something new.

After graduating from the University of British Columbia, Bruce Arthur joined the Post in 2001 as a sports reporter. After covering the Toronto Raptors, he became the paper's basketball columnist in 2005... read more, its Toronto columnist in 2007, and its national columnist in 2008. His work currently appears across the Postmedia chain three times a week. Arthur was born in Vancouver, is married, and lives in Toronto.View author's profile